Manufactured devices are tested prior to being placed in their final packaging. Once testing is complete, the devices are packaged and are then placed into inventory before being shipped to final consumers. Those final consumers expect the packaging to remain sealed until they choose to open their new devices. Sealed packaging provides benefit in terms of security in that it makes tampering with a device in an undetectable manner more difficult. Unfortunately, the same sealed package that keeps the device safe prevents access to the device for purposes of quality control and status monitoring. Since a device may stay in inventory for an appreciable amount of time, there is the chance that the state of the device may alter after it is finally tested and packaged, but before it is delivered to a consumer. This creates the potential for a manufacturer to not only disappoint their customer through the delivery of a defective unit, but to also needlessly incur the cost of shipping that defective unit both out to the customer and back to the manufacturer for assessment, repair, and repackaging.
Various issues can arise with packaged devices prior to being shipped out form inventory. Devices that have internal batteries for core system functions such as time keeping can run out of batteries. Furthermore, in certain secure applications, some systems will purge sensitive data or shut down if the internal battery fails. For example, point of sale (POS) devices can store cryptographic keys in a secure volatile memory powered by an internal battery, and loss of battery power will trigger destruction of those keys, thereby rendering the device unable to process transactions. Sensitive applications can also sometimes involve devices with internal tamper detection circuits which will erase sensitive data if a tamper is detected. If a tamper is detected in a packaged device, via false alarm or otherwise, the fact that the device is no longer functional should be reported to the manufacturer before it is released for shipment to a consumer.